


The Kid

by katydid



Category: MÄR - Märchen Awakens Romance
Genre: Gen, Humor
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-02-12
Updated: 2012-02-18
Packaged: 2017-10-31 01:09:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 16,371
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/338248
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/katydid/pseuds/katydid
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>What if, instead of marking Alviss with the Zombie Tattoo and leaving, Phantom had decided to take him home? Note: not slash and not serious!</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Peta, Can I Keep Him?

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I don't own MAR, I only abuse it. I'm nothing but a penniless pauper, so it's no use trying to sue me.

* * *

The time was during the first War Game in MAR Heaven. The setting was the Chess Pieces' floating castle. And it was just another ordinary day for the Chess Pieces. An ordinary day for MAR Heaven's resident bunch of psychopaths wasn't normal by any stretch of the imagination, but it was surprisingly boring. It mostly involved training for battle or lurking in separate rooms. (No wonder they were planning to take over the world. They really had nothing better to do.)

However, a small bunch had gathered in front of the castle, awaiting the return of their glorious leader Phantom, who had gone to make a brief visit to the Cross Guard in order to sow terror in their enemy. (Or, as Peta had put it, Phantom had gotten bored and wandered off looking for playmates.)

Peta himself, having nothing more exciting to do, was perched atop a gargoyle waiting for Phantom's return. Rolan had followed him. The boy claimed to want to show Phantom his newest ARM ability, but he didn't really need a special reason to wait for Phantom. Candice hadn't bothered to think of any excuse. She and Rolan were passing the time by playing some sort of card game together. Normally, it would just be the three of them waiting for Phantom, but today Halloween was there as well. He'd managed to break one of his minor ARMS (on purpose, Peta suspected) and was planning to wrangle a more powerful one from Phantom as a replacement. Typical.

Peta was the first to spot Phantom approaching. Candice saw him second, and stood up abruptly, squealing, "Phaaaaaaaaaantom! You're back! You—what is that THING!"

The thing was tucked under Phantom's right arm. Peta stared at it, closed his eyes, and then took another look. It was still there. And "it" appeared to be a small, struggling boy perhaps ten years old, with black hair and blue eyes. Who was currently screaming his head off.

"Phantom," Peta began, striving to sound dignified but forced to shout to be heard over of noise, "what exactly have you done this time, and more to the point, why?"

Phantom dropped the child onto the ground. "Isn't he adorable?"

Peta gritted his teeth. "That isn't the point. The point is, we're the future rulers of MAR Heaven, not a day care facility."

The child stopped screaming and fixed Peta with the scariest glare he'd ever seen on anyone under four feet tall (which was pretty scary, if not enough to faze a Zodiac Knight.) The brat declared, "MAR Heaven doesn't belong to you guys! You're just a bunch of pathetic losers who don't stand a chance against Boss and the others!"

Advancing menacingly, Halloween snarled, "You'd better watch your mouth!"

Peta was about to warn Halloween that he'd better not kill the thing before they found out what Phantom wanted with it, but the child acted first. He scooped up a rock and hurled it at the Chess Knight. Now, Halloween had defended himself from countless deadly attacks from high ranking ARMS, and if he'd been attacked by another ARM user he would have countered easily. However, it had been years since anyone had thrown a rock at him. Such a pathetic attack was completely beneath his notice, and he ignored it.

The rock collided into his forehead with a resounded thud, and he toppled over backwards.

"Excellent aim!" Phantom said cheerfully.

"Don't encourage him!" Peta growled. "Phantom, who is this brat?"

Phantom shrugged. "Well, I was having a little fun with some of the Cross Guard's foot soldiers, and this kid showed up. He marched up and demanded that I stop killing them. He wasn't afraid of me in the slightest! It was remarkable. Just the kind of courage I look for in my Chess Pieces." He casually dodged a stone the boy hurled at him.

"So you just decided to bring him home? Even for you, this is a bit much."

"Is he going to join us now?" Rolan asked curiously. He was fanning Candice, who had apparently fainted.

"Apparently," Peta sighed.

"I'll never join you!" the boy spat. "You lying murdering bastards!"

"Where did you learn such bad language?" Phantom asked, not sounding particularly upset.

The kid turned his glare on the leader of the knights. "And you! Just let me get my hands on a weapon, and I swear I'm going to kill you! I'll rip off your arms and legs, then stab you through the heart, then pull off your head and stomp on your brains!"

Phantom beamed. "Isn't he just the cutest thing you've ever seen?"

Peta moaned.

* * *

To be continued...


	2. The Annoyance List

Now that Alviss had "joined" them, the Chess Pieces' lives were no longer boring.

Not that this was a good thing. Peta had preferred boring. In fact, it was only now that he was realizing just how luxurious being bored had been.

Peta was very fond of the night, for both personal and business reasons. As such, it was his normal practice to stay up late and then sleep thorough morning. But now he was woken every day at the crack of dawn by the ungodly racket generated by the demon hell child, also known as Alviss.

Alviss was particularly ear-piercing that morning. Peta was a bit of an insomniac, so he didn't even try to go back to sleep. He simply got dressed ,then unlocked his door and headed downstairs.

Before Alviss had arrived, Peta had always left his door unlocked. After all, no one in the castle would dare to steal from him. But after opening his door one morning only to have a bucket of paint dumped over his head, he had become more cautious. Spending an hour trying to get green goo out of his long hair had taught him a lesson he wouldn't soon forget. Irritatingly, Alviss had never been punished (Peta had kept the incident a secret in order to preserve his dignity).

Besides, many other Chess Pieces had tried to complain about Alviss, and been ignored by Phantom. The evil brat was still firmly under their glorious leader's protection. Alviss had tried to attack Phantom many times, often with booby traps involving knives and even poison, but he'd yet to succeed once. Phantom persisted in acting like the whole thing was great fun. At this point Peta was almost hoping one of Alviss' traps would succeed, and possibly make Phantom angry enough to dispose of the boy. But there had been no such luck.

Peta himself had managed to avoid being caught a second time, mostly through increased diligence. As he opened the door to the dining room, he easily dodged a piece of sausage thrown in his general direction.

"I hate this food! I won't eat it!" Alviss screamed, hurling the contents of his plate in all directions. Peta groaned inwardly. Every morning it was the same thing.

Phantom beamed cheerfully, apparently unaffected the awful noise. "So, what would you like to eat?"

Alviss narrowed his eyes, straining his imagination for some impossible food he hadn't already asked for. "I want unicorn meat!" he declared.

Phantom smiled. "Right, then, unicorn it is!" Pointing at a nearby pawn he declared, "You there, go find a unicorn!"

"But sir, unicorns are mythical creatures!" the hapless pawn protested.

"I don't care! If they don't exist, go invent one! I don't need pawns that can't carry out simple orders!"

The peon nodded and, head down, trudged towards the exit. As he passed Peta hissed to him, "Just find something and pass it off as unicorn, got it?"

The pawn trudged off gloomily.

Peta surveyed the dining room and was unsurprised to find it a mess. After all, this was the exact same as yesterday.

Phantom cheerfully said to Alviss, "There, that's settled. In the meantime, want some fried eggs?"

"I don't want anything! I won't accept any food from you monsters!"

Peta sighed. He knew from past experience that Alviss' principles would be eroded by lunchtime. It was a pity: it would be much more convenient if the boy would starve himself to death.

Meanwhile, Alviss mimed throwing a plate at one of the pawns, then swiftly turned and hurled it at Phantom. His cleverness did him no good- the Knight's Leader easily dodged. Another plate was smashed against the wall. This would be putting a strain on the Chess Pieces' budget if it weren't for the fact that they just stole everything they needed.

Phantom finally noticed his right-hand man. "Good morning, Peta. Did you see that just now? Aren't his reflexes great? He's going to make a terrific fighter!"

"I concur with your assessment, but I fail to see how this is a good thing, since he's likely to be fighting for the other side."

"But it's all the more fun that way!"

This was one of the more difficult aspects of Phantom's personality. Peta understood his leader's need to work off the boredom of his immortality. He wished that Alviss would realize that the real reason Phantom always indulged him was because he also enjoyed tormenting the lower level Chess Pieces. Then maybe the boy would stop assisting his sworn enemy's sadistic impulses.

After breakfast Peta decided to enjoy a bit of light reading. He picked out a book on tactics and headed out to the garden. Thanks to their plant-user Weasel, the Chess Pieces had a very nice garden, full of delicately shaped trees and blooming flowers. Of course, it was also full of carnivorous and poisonous plants. You wouldn't want to eat anything from this garden; food was strictly to be "borrowed" from neighboring citizens.

It was a wonderful day to be outside: sunny, with a nice breeze. But no sooner had Peta settled down and opened his book then a black blur swept past him, upturning his drink all over the pages.

It was no great surprise that this was followed by a shriek of "Alviss, get back here!"

Candice burst into view. "Did you see where he went?" she demanded.

Peta, annoyed at her rude tone of voice, merely glared at her. But she failed to take the hint. "That little monster stole my boulder axe ARM! Or, what will I tell Phantom?" she moaned.

"Why don't you go jump in the pond?" Peta growled.

"Is that where he went? Thank you!" Candice took off at top speed. A few seconds later, Peta heard a splash.

He hadn't meant for here to take him seriously. Well, it wasn't any of his business. Content with that thought, Peta went back to trying to mop up the spill. Honestly, what was the world coming to when he couldn't even enjoy a nice glass of his fallen enemies' blood in peace?

There was another rustle in the bushes, and Rolan appeared. "Peta, have you seen Alviss? I'm supposed to be watching him."

"Well, you're doing a great job," Peta growled.

Rolan frowned worriedly. "It's very kind of you to say so, but I'm afraid I've lost track of him."

"I know that! Can't you tell by the mess that he's been here?"

"He does seem to leave a distinctive trail. Well, Phantom says children should be energetic."

Peta restrained himself from more sarcasm only because it was ineffective. Rolan was too good at ignoring anything he didn't want to hear. "Last I saw he was armed and headed back towards the castle."

"Armed? What do you mean?"

They were interrupted by Candice's piercing shriek. "Help! These lilies are trying to eat me!"

"Oh dear. I'd better go rescue her," Rolan said, running off. In the distance Peta heard the sounds of a full-fledged battle with the greenery.

Well, there went any hope of a peaceful morning in the garden. He decided to head back to his room.

In the halls, Peta ran into Phantom. "Good morning, Peta!" his maniacal leader said cheerfully.

"I've been meaning to talk to you, Phantom. How much longer are you going to keep around that-?"

"I've found you, Phantom!" The knights turned around to see Alviss standing behind them.

"Speak of the devil…" Peta thought.

"Now you're going to pay! Boulder Axe!" With that, Alviss summoned Candice's axe and attempted to attack Phantom. "Attempted" was the key word, since the axe was quite a bit bigger than he was.

"Oh, that weapon is clearly too heavy for you. Come on, let's find you another one!" Phantom scooped up Alviss in one arm and the axe in the other and began to carry them both in the direction of the armory.

"Wait, you can't be seriously planning to give him weapons!" Peta cried, but Phantom was long gone. Peta decided to spend the next couple hours in his room. And he wasn't opening the door no matter what he heard going on outside.

That afternoon, Peta headed outside for his daily training session. He had a lot of stress to work off, mainly thanks the sheer annoyingness of the people around him.

Third most annoying was Candice. She had always been needy and loud, a combination which Peta disliked intensely, but ever since Alviss had arrived she had gotten worse. She seemed to take Phantom's attention to the younger boy as a personal affront, and constantly tried to compete with him. Mostly this just meant she inadvertently aided Alviss' schemes or just generally made bad situations worse.

Second place belonged to Rolan. The boy was polite, respectful, and helpful, so normally he wouldn't have been annoying at all. But Rolan had decided to imitate Phantom's attitude towards Alviss, treating him like a cute little brother no matter what he did, and this just rubbed Peta the wrong way. Even more irritatingly, Alviss himself had declared that he found Rolan's perpetual smiliness "creepy" and avoided the other boy as much as possible. This meant Rolan never got pranked or attacked. Secretly Peta was rather jealous. He was obviously creepier than Rolan, wasn't he? To make matters worse, Rolan was sharing a room with Alviss, and although Alviss preferred to avoid the Chess Pieces he preferred to avoid Rolan even more, so rather than staying in his room he was constantly running around the castle being a nuisance. In Peta's opinion this meant that Rolan was not only failing to take his fair share of Alviss-generated trouble, he was also making things worse for everyone else.

The most annoying one of all was Alviss himself, for obvious reasons.

To his profound irritation, he could hear the boy now, shrieking, "I don't want to! I don't want to!" And the noise was coming closer.

Phantom appeared, carrying Alviss. "Peta, I want to go out for a while, would you mind looking after him?"

Peta froze with astonishment. With a bright smile, Phantom said, "Well, that's settled. Have fun!"

Really, if it wasn't for the fact that beloved leaders were exempt from the list, Phantom just might beat Alviss for the title of most annoying.

After that, Peta's practice session was ruined. He tried to continue, but something about the way Alviss stared at him, as though he were memorizing every one of Peta's moves and planning how to kill him, was just too unnerving. So, Peta tied Alviss to a chair and went back to reading. Then Rolan appeared and lectured him about proper childcare, but at least he took Alviss away with him.

Dinner was also a mess. In an attempt to imitate Alviss, Candice complained non-stop then threw food everywhere. She left crying when Phantom told her she was being immature.

Feeling rather tired, mentally as well as physically, Peta headed back to his room. Unfortunately, when he opened the door a bucket of water fell on his head.

It could have been something worse. The Chess Pieces must be learning not to leave dangerous things lying around where Alviss could get to them.

Judging by the scratches around the metal Peta figured that the demonic hell child had finally figure out how to pick locks. He would have to see about having a bolt installed, or maybe a few traps. In the meantime, he propped a chair under the door knob and went to bed.

It had been another typical day at the Chess Piece's castle.


	3. Let's All Go to the Puppet Show!

Rolan was once again trying to impress upon Alviss the importance of etiquette, good behavior, and the glory of the chess pieces, with no more success than usual.

"What you did to that poor rook Kouga was not funny at all," he said firmly. "The poor man couldn't sit down for a week, and now he has even more of a complex about people who are better-looking than him."

"Which is everyone," Alviss muttered, swinging his legs back and forth as he sat on his bed and looked bored.

Rolan continued his lecture. "And I really think you went overboard with Loco. I appreciate that children like to pull pranks, but hitting the same person with a balloon full of paint twenty times in one day is definitely overkill."

"It was twenty-three times, actually. Besides, it's not like she complained."

"That's true, but it still wasn't very nice. And if you were going to keep on trying until you got a reaction out of her, you were wasting your time."

"I bet the firebomb would have done the trick, if you hadn't taken it away," Alviss said sulkily.

"I doubt it. And what about Magical Roe? All he wanted was to cheer you up with some magic tricks."

"Ha! Don't think I'm not wise to your brainwashing schemes!"

"Now, thanks to you, he says he's never working with another child again. The queen wanted to use him as a tutor for her stepdaughter, too. We had to send Candice instead, and frankly it's not working out very well."

"Big surprise. How on Earth did she get picked?"

"Childrearing skills aren't common among the Chess Pieces. Which, admittedly, might the real problem where you're concerned. I'm sure it must be difficult for you, but please try to bear with it."

Alviss glared at him stonily.

Rolan sighed. "At least try to stay away from the new recruits from now on. You've already scared off several batches of them. At this rate, you might actually inconvenience Phantom!" Rolan spoke of inconveniencing Phantom the same way most people spoke of mass murder. But Alviss was unmoved.

"Do you think a knife through the heart would 'inconvenience' him?" the boy asked sarcastically.

Rolan merely shook his head and muttered something about "poor, traumatized children", which frankly irritated Alviss more than any punishment would have. "Can I go now?" he asked.

"No, you're going to say in your room and reflect on your actions until you learn not to take out you abandonment issues on other people."

"What? I don't have abandonment issues!"

Rolan smiled sympathetically. "It's nothing to be ashamed of; I know just how you feel. But it's time to face the facts. None of your so-called friends have even tried to rescue you. They must have decided you're not worth the bother. But don't worry, we still appreciate you."

Alviss froze as Rolan's words went into him like knives. He'd heard other Chess Pieces taunt him with the same facts before, but they were so obviously just trying to needle him that he'd been able to ignore them. But Rolan really believed what he was saying, and his words brought Alviss' own secret doubts into the open.

Rolan, who had a definite tendency to project his own feelings onto Alviss, had honestly thought that the younger boy had come to the same conclusions as he had long ago. Therefore, he was completely surprised when Alviss burst into tears.

XXX

"I think if we took him to see the show, it would do him a world of good," Rolan said, waving the pamphlet advertizing a children's puppet show in front of Peta.

"And you're telling me this why?" Peta asked.

Ignoring him, Rolan continued, "Alviss had been so gloomy lately, and I'm afraid it's all my fault. He hasn't even tried to hurt anyone in almost a week."

"I know. It's been wonderful."

"I think we should go on an outing with Alviss. Visit the town, see the puppet show, buy him some presents, and he's bound to cheer up."

"You can do what you want, Rolan, but I don't see what this has to do with me."

"But Peta, Phantom's still gone, so you have to come! You're one of Alviss' favorite people!"

"I may regret asking, but how did you come to that conclusion?"

"Because except for Phantom, you're the one he tries hardest to pull tricks on! So obviously, you're the one he likes most after Phantom!"

Peta stared at Rolan. "You're really living in your own world, aren't you."

Rolan continued, "I suspect the reason he doesn't try to pull pranks on me is because he sees me as another kid. That's why you need to come along. Alviss won't get over his fear of abandonment until he has a stable adult presence in his life."

"And I should care about this why?"

"Come on, all you have to do is spend a few hours watching a play. It'll be fun!"

Peta glared at the flyer. "How did you even get that?"

"Some guy wearing a skull mask knocked on our door and delivered it yesterday."

"Wait, he actually marched up to OUR castle looking for customers? Was he insane?" Remembering the fate of the last salesperson to bother the Chess Pieces, Peta mused, "He must be dead now, so the show was probably already called off."

"As a matter of fact, no. He beat bunch of our pawns, and even defeated the knight they called for back-up. Then he ran off."

"Now that is impressive." Peta had been looking for strong recruits for the Chess Pieces, since they were losing a lot of people in the War Games. "Maybe I should go to this show and try to recruit him."

"So you're coming! Thank you so much! I knew you'd do it."

"Wait a second. I never said I was going with YOU. And I'm certainly not taking the hell-brat."

"Really? If you show up at a children's puppet show without a child in tow… well, how do you think that will look?"

Rolan did have a point. "Fine, you win. When do we leave?"

XXX

For Peta, second in command of the infamous Chess Pieces, terror of MAR-Heaven, to be attending a puppet show was probably one of the signs of the end of the world. Or at the very least, it was very embarrassing. Peta had actually disguised himself, complete with a wig, to keep from being recognized. He liked to see people cower in fear before him, which was unlikely if this story ever got out.

On the plus side, Alviss had been extremely well-behaved. Well-behaved for Alviss, anyway. He hadn't wanted to go, so he had sat down on the floor and refused to get up despite Rolan's entreaties. Peta had been forced to carry him. But he had remained silent and motionless the whole way, which was a small blessing. He continued to stare off into space now, apparently unmoved by the puppet show.

The rest of the audience, which averaged around six years old, thought the show was great. Rolan was clapping his hands and shouting out responses to the performer's prompts with all of the children. Peta, on the other hand, was so bored he actually fell asleep.

He regretted that later, when he woke up to find that he show was over and whoever had been manipulating the puppets was already gone.

"This is your fault, Rolan," he complained. "You told me not the talk to him beforehand and risk disrupting the show!"

Rolan, however, wasn't paying any attention to him. "Didn't you like the show, Alviss?" he asked anxiously.

"Forget it. The brat's gone cationic or something," Peta grumbled.

"Oh dear, this is very worrying. I'll have to use my last resort. Peta, would you mind watching Alviss for a bit?"

"I suppose you don't care if I do," Peta said sourly. Sure enough, Rolan was already gone.

Peta decided to go looking for new ARMs at the local shop, just so the trip wasn't entirely a waste of time. But first, he shed his disguise and put on the earring that marked his rank as a knight. Chess Pieces always got the best discounts- everything came free! He'd bet that the so-called heroes didn't get anywhere near such a good deal.

Peta examined the local selection while the terrified shopkeeper looked on, but he didn't find anything valuable. The only one that came close was a useful but sort of lame ARM that turned people into birds. It didn't really fit Peta's image, but he decided to take it anyway, just to make the shopkeeper's day a little worse. He could add it to the common treasury; there was doubtless someone who would want it. It wasn't a bad ARM, it was just a little too silly for a villain-type to use. But it would probably be a helpful choice for a beginner.

Alviss merely sat in the corner and sulked. But when Peta prepared to leave, he raised his head and demanded, "Aren't you going to pay for that?"

Peta snapped, "In a word, no." When Alviss didn't respond, Peta commented, "I think I like your new 'meek' personality."

That was a mistake. As soon as he saw Alviss' expression, Peta knew the boy had taken this as a challenge. The child took a deep breath, filled up his lungs with air, and then began to howl.

As if to make up for his recent placidness, this one registered a nine on the Alviss version of the Richter Scale. Alviss' piercing temper tantrum even rattled the ARMs on the walls. To Peta's embarrassment, they were beginning to draw a crowd. Now he regretted abandoning his disguise. If word got out that the Chess Pieces couldn't even handle a little boy, he'd never live it down.

Salvation came from a peculiar source. Out of nowhere, a strangely dressed skeleton-masked man swooped down and picked Alviss up. "What's the matter? Are you hurt?" he asked gently.

Alviss was so surprised he stopped screaming. "That's a good boy," the stranger said encouragingly, then stuck a lollipop into Alviss' gaping mouth, effectively silencing him.

"How did you do that?" Peta demanded, amazed. He took a closer look at the stranger, comparing him to Rolan's description. "And you're the one from the puppet show, too. The same person who beat up one of our knights. Now you must join us!"

"I don't know anything about that. I just came by because I wanted to see why this boy was the only one who wasn't laughing at my show. Have you been taking proper care of him?"

"No! That's why we need you!" Peta said desperately. "I'll give you whatever you want! Power, gold, your own country! Just as long as you keep the hell-child tamed!"

"Well, I don't know about that," Ash said. "All I want is to see the children of the world smile."

Peta was surprised, but he rallied. "Well, I can work with that too. How about we get down to serious negotiations."

Peta was just sealing a deal with Ash as the newest Chess Piece when Rolan burst into the shop. "Where's Alviss! What have you done with him!"

"I'm here," Alviss commented, raising his head from the floor, where he'd been playing a game with the marbles Ash had given him.

"You're safe! I'm so relieved. I just walked by a grave with your name on the tombstone! I was so worried!" He paused. "Not that I think Peta would kill you or anything. Even if there was some mention of 'fouly murdured by Chess' and 'will not go unavenged' on the gravestone."

Peta said, "Now that I think about it, I seem to recall Phantom telling the Cross Guard that he'd drowned Alviss in a lake or something. You know how he is, he likes to get his opponents riled up. They must have taken him seriously."

Alviss jumped to his feet. "You mean Boss and the others didn't abandon me? They just thought I was dead?" It looked like all his old fire was coming back. Unfortunately. Peta was just glad that now he had secured a babysitter Alviss would become someone else's problem.

"I don't know what's going on, but I'm glad," Ash said. "If you'll excuse me, I have to go get my belongings."

"Who was that?" Rolan asked after he left.

"Just our newest member."

"Oh. More importantly, why didn't you say something earlier? Alviss has been so miserable!"

"Exactly."

"I see! Peta, you wanted Alviss to feel abandoned so he would become closer to us! You really do care!"

"At this point I'm not even going to try to affect your state of denial."

"I'm sorry I ruined your plan. But I'm sure that with time he'll come to think of us as family anyway. Speaking of which, I got you a present Alviss!"

The boy took the package without enthusiasm, but his eyes widened with joy when he opened it. "A make-your-own-firebomb kit!"

Rolan beamed. "I knew you'd like it!"

Peta could feel his blood pressure rising. "Why. On Earth. Would you. Get him. That."

"But he was so gloomy! It was all I could think of! Anyway, Peta, what's that you have?"

Peta hastily said, "This ARM isn't for me! It's only suited for a beginner!"

"You mean you got Alviss something too? How thoughtful!" Rolan turned to the shopkeeper. "So, has he paid for it yet? No? Here's some money."

Peta groaned. "What are you doing? What will people think of the Chess Pieces if we go around paying for things?"

"They'll think we're respectable and citizens and wonderful people."

"That would be a problem! We have a bad reputation to uphold, remember?"

Although, as he looked at Alviss sitting on the floor happily building explosives, Peta thought that the Chess Pieces' reputation was unlikely to last in any case.


	4. Merry Chessmas!

Rolan was slumped on the stone steps, his face buried in his hands. Although he wasn't actually crying, he looked close to it. Peta paused at the foot of the stairs to ponder this unusual scene. It was rare to see Rolan dejected about anything. It was even rarer for him to openly show his feelings instead of plastering a fake smile over his face when he was feeling glum. Unless—

"Something hasn't happened to Phantom, has it?" Peta asked harshly, a hint of concern leaking into of his voice.

Rolan raised his head, startled. "What? No. He's gone down to town to steal a giant fur tree for this 'Chessmass' party that we're going to have. Why do you ask?"

Christmas was some sort of holiday from outside Mar-Heaven that had been imported by the Cross Guard's new champion. And as soon as Phantom had found out that the Cross Guard was throwing a massive party, he'd insisted that the Chess Pieces had to have one too (after renaming the holiday Chessmass, of course). It was a bloody nuisance, according to Peta anyway. Just thinking about it made his temper rise.

"If nothing is wrong, then why are you sitting there looking like your doctor just gave you six months to live? Did Phantom get fed up with you and throw you out?" It was a rather cruel thing to say even for Peta, but the Chess Knight was the sort of person who felt the need to cover up the uncharacteristic concern he'd shown earlier with sarcasm and venom.

As always, Rolan simply ignored the insult. "It's Alviss! He doesn't like me!"

 _Well, duh_ , Peta thought. After Phantom had impulsively decided to kidnap that brat hanging around the Cross Guard, the ten-year-old boy had made it obvious that he didn't like any of the Chess Pieces. In fact, he considered them mortal enemies and probably would have slit at least one throat by now if Rolan didn't keep an eye on him (and keep him away from the knives). In fact, Rolan seemed to be the only Chess Piece that Alviss half-tolerated, which made this whole situation rather ridiculous.

"Just out of curiosity, where did you get the notion that Alviss dislikes you any more than he does the rest of us?"

"Because I'm the only person that he hasn't given a Christmas present to!"

Peta knew he'd regret asking, but he just couldn't help himself. "Explain what exactly you're talking about. And keep it short."

"Well, over the last week Alviss has done something to every single Chess Piece in the castle. Mostly just minor things, like belongings going missing, people falling down stairs, or buckets of water perched over doors. He's saved his special tricks for a just few of us. Like convincing Candice that she was going to get under the mistletoe with Phantom, and then leaving her there with Halloween. Hiding all of Loco's voodoo dolls in various places she couldn't quite reach. Sneaking catnip in Chaton's lunch. And we all know that Alviss is the reason you came down to breakfast with your clothes dyed red and green yesterday. Not to mention that springing axe trap he set for Phantom. Well, Alviss didn't manage to actually hit him, but I thought that the holly leaves tied around the blade were very festive."

Peta gritted his teeth at the memory of the red-and-green dye incident. "I trust there's a point to this?"

"He hasn't done anything to me!"

Just when Peta thought that he'd heard everything…"Maybe I'm missing something here. Why is that a bad thing?"

"Because it means he doesn't feel comfortable around me the way he does around the others. Or maybe it just means he doesn't like me very much. Why else would he give everyone except me a present?"

"Wait a second. How are the various torments Alviss has put us all through over the last week considered 'presents'?"

"Well, since Phantom burned down that village as a Chessmass present for the Cross Guard, I assume that's the traditional type of gift."

Peta sighed. "It's more likely that Phantom just has a twisted mind. And frankly, so do you! Just in a slightly different way."

"Oh why am I not loved as much?" Rolan sobbed.

Actually, Peta had once asked Alviss why he never tried to prank Rolan. According to his memory, it had more or less gone like this:

_Peta: Why don't you go bother Rolan for once?_

_Alviss: I don't want to. He's creepy._

_Peta: What do you mean? He's the person who's always nicest to you!_

_Alviss: That's why he freaks me out. Chess Pieces aren't supposed to be nice._

Drawing on the wisdom gained from this conversation, Peta attempted to impart some advice. "Maybe if you were less nice to Alviss, he'd be more likely to torment you."

"Do you mean he's taking me for granted? Alviss wouldn't do that, he's a good kid."

Peta would have responded, but his mind boggled at the words "Alviss" and "good kid" in the same sentence.

Rolan continued, "Maybe he just doesn't realize that I want a present. Come to think of it, I haven't given him anything. He must be so hurt! I need to get him something extra-special. Perhaps that flame-thrower he's been wanting. But no, Ash forbade me to get him that. Do you have any ideas, Peta?"

But by that time, Peta had gotten fed up with this crazy conversation and left.

XXX

Peta was far too busy to waste any more time on Rolan's problems. Preparations for Chessmass had left him exhausted. Phantom had placed him in charge of arranging the party. This was typical- Phantom's strength as a leader came from his charisma and his combat skills; when it came to organizational ability, he scored in the negative. As always, he counted on his right-hand man to pick up the slack. Peta's conversation with Phantom had gone something like this:

_Phantom: Peta, I want you to steal some decorations, organize a team of pawns to decorate our largest room Chessmass-style (I'm sure you can research what the Cross Guard is doing and copy them), find a pine tree (I want it to be at least twenty feet tall), arrange for a feast for all our members (since I'm including all the pawns that will make about 250 of us) and since it's a special day I want everyone to have their favorite dish, so go ask all of them what they want, and while you're at it recall all our members who are currently on missions, I'm sure you can find a way to do that without losing any battles or giving away any undercover agents, and I want everyone to dress up in matching red and green outfits. Have it all done by tomorrow, okay? I have to go make a cameo harassing my mortal enemies the Cross Guard and showing off my new bandages. Ta-ta!_

_Peta: I need a vacation…_

Well, he hadn't said the last part aloud, but he had thought it.

The subsequent day had been a nightmare for Peta. He was trying to block out the memory, but horrific images of obscure ingredients that only grew in swamps, a giant pine tree gone out of control thanks to an experimental growth formula, and a horde of clumsy pawns (who were barely intelligent enough to understand the concept of bludgeoning someone) committing a variety of decorating disasters ranging from dropping pointy stars on random passer-byes to baking exploding cakes.

Yet somehow Peta had managed to get everything together in time for the big day. The Great Hall looked spectacular decorated with red and green objects stolen from around the world, the giant pine tree loomed over the room, topped by a massive gold star, the tables were full of exotic dishes from around the world, a giant paper-mache ball hung from the ceiling, and all the Chess Pieces were gathered together, in matching outfits no less. (And if several delicate plans had been overturned to make this possible, then it couldn't be helped. Phantom was the boss.)

At least everyone seemed to be enjoying the party. All around the room, Chess Pieces were chatting, eating delicious food, engaging in random bouts of sparring, and even occasionally trying to dance. (The fighting and the dancing looked remarkably similar, actually. And not in a way that reflected well on the Chess' dancing skills.) A few people were exchanging gifts. Many of these presents contained dead animal heads or exploding traps. Alviss had given the Chess a somewhat warped idea of what a Christmas present was supposed to consist of. Or maybe it was just their natural personalities.

Peta himself preferred to stay out of party. He was a natural wallflower, although he would prefer to be called a "lone wolf". He lurked near the door, sipping something red that might have been wine.

Yes, the party was going magnificently. The food was excellent, the entertainment passable, and the decorations were a masterpiece. His eyes drifted around the room, taking in glitter, banners, holly leaves, mistletoe, and the giant paper-mache ball- hey, he didn't remember adding that!

He barely had time to finish the thought before the ball exploded.

A strange gooey material splattered all across the room. It was too fast for anyone to escape and too big for anyone to dodge. The entire mass of Phantom's army was pinned to the floor by a thick white liquid that appeared to be a cross between marshmallow and glue.

Peta's first thought was that it must be an enemy attack. Then he saw the banner dangling from the exploded hanging ball. It read "Merry Chessmass, suckers! Yours, Alviss."  _Well_ , Peta thought,  _I wasn't exactly wrong_.

By cruelly trampling on anyone who got in his way, eventually Peta managed to crawl over to the giant tree (the only thing not completely submerged), grab onto a limb, and painfully haul himself free of the sticky mess. Climbing up the branches, he surveyed the scene of thrashing and screaming people. The entire Chess Army was glued in place, and they all seemed to be making massive fools of themselves.

Well, the entire army minus one. Phantom was perched on a branch a little above Peta. But unlike his right-hand man, he was completely untouched by the mess- without so much as a hair out of place. "How did you get out unscathed?" Peta demanded.

Phantom smiled whimsically. "I thought I saw the ball start to swell up, so I quickly jumped to the top of this tree."

"A little warning would have been nice!"

"Why should I have to do that? Remember, survival of the fittest. Besides, isn't all this chaos wonderful?"

"Wonderful! Every single Chess Piece has been immobilized, slimed, oh and utterly humiliated!"

"But I'm fine," Phantom pointed out.

For the first, last, and only time in his life, Peta completely lost his self-control. In a brief moment, time stood still, hell froze over, and Peta reached out and shoved Phantom off the tree limb into the gooey mess.

He would later do everything in his power to erase this moment from existence. He rigged evidence that the tree branch had spontaneously broken, and killed the only pawn who he thought might have been looking in his general direction at the time. Then he focused on convincing himself that it had never happened with such single mindedness that within a few weeks he could have successfully passed a lie detector's test saying that he had never pushed Phantom under any circumstances, nope not ever.

But the fact remained that it did happen. And at that very moment, Peta fled the scene of the crime, so shocked and frantic that he ripped his way through the sticky glue and was out the door in a matter of seconds.

Outside, he stared at the ceiling, his feelings in turmoil. How could he have done that to his beloved leader! It was unthinkable!

From behind him, a voice said, "You look awfully upset. Don't worry, I'm sure a little soap and water will get all that gunk out of your hair."

His precious hair! As if this day wasn't already bad enough. Peta whirled around, prepared to strangle whoever had dared to remind him of this grievous misfortune. But it was only Rolan, who was just too cute to kill (not that Peta would ever admit this).

Still irritated, he demanded, "How did you get out here?" Taking a closer look, he added, "And you aren't slimed either!"

Rolan nodded sadly. "I'm afraid I missed the fun. I happened to notice Alviss slipping out of the room, so I went after him to see what was wrong. Then the ball exploded."

"You're as lucky as ever," Peta said sourly.

"I know, my bad luck is horrible! Even though I followed your advice and told Rolan that I wanted to be included in his next prank. He gave me a funny look, but he told me if I went to the Chessmass party he'd come up with something extra special. And even so, I missed it!"

Only Rolan could stand the sole person unaffected in the midst of Alviss-induced chaos, and bemoan the fact that he "wasn't included".

"Wait, you knew this was going to happen too?" Peta growled.

"Not exactly. I just knew that Alviss was up to something. Which is not exactly surprising news. Besides, I wouldn't have wanted to mess it up for him! Oh, I hope he isn't annoyed that I left early, after he went to all the trouble of preparing a special surprise for me!"

Peta was about to yell at Rolan, but suddenly he realized that right now he was just too tired to be angry. In all probability, nothing could have saved them from Alviss anyway. "Do you know where the demon-brat is now?" he asked.

"Uh, I think I saw him sneaking towards the back exit before I was distracted by the explosion."

 _Probably trying to escape in the confusion_ , Peta thought. "You'd better go find him. Some of the Chess Pieces are beginning to work themselves free, and if they catch him before you do it won't be pretty."

Rolan gasped. "You're right! I must rescue Alviss at once. Thank you so much Peta, I knew you cared!"

As he watched Rolan vanish down the corridor, Peta wondered why he had destroyed his best chance to see the demon hell child gone forever. It wasn't out of any concern for the brat's well-being. And it certainly wasn't to secure Rolan's gratitude. But Peta thought that left to his own devices Alviss would probably escape. And although the prospect of having him gone for good was a pleasant one, the brat would run straight into the arms of the enemy. If he was bad now, he would probably be worse once he took over the Cross Guard for his own demonic purposes. Peta preferred to have Alviss where he could keep an eye on him.

…And besides, he couldn't risk the evil brat spreading any stories about what he looked like with marshmallow in his hair.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> By the way, in case anyone was wondering, Alviss got the ingredients to make his gooey surprise from Rolan; it was what he requested for his Chessmass present. Rolan felt bad about vetoing his first request (the flamethrower) so he didn't ask Alviss why he wanted half a ton of superglue, fifty barrels of marshmallows, and a small vial of acid. Alviss made the paper mache ball during an arts-and-crafts project with Ash. For reasons of his own, Phantom helped Alviss hang the ball from the ceiling. But Peta has only himself to blame for the timed-explosion recipe- he gave Alviss a chemistry book in a misguided attempt to get him to be quiet for a while. The banner was purely a product of Alviss' childish ingenuity.


	5. Revenge of the Babysat

The aftermath of the War Games left all of MAR Heaven in shock. The leader of the Cross Guard had been killed, but had taken Phantom down with him. The populace didn't know whether to celebrate or grieve. But the Chess Pieces- those of them who had survived- were all unanimously miserable.

Most of the survivors remained in the castle. As a general rule, they didn't have anywhere else to go. Some had fallen into complete and utter depression. The only hope left was Phantom's immortality. Someday he would revive, and they would get a second chance.

Peta chose to focus on that hope. He wasn't the type to fall into a dark and miserable depression. He enjoyed darkness and misery too much to do that. And so he set off on a journey to recruit new members for the Chess Pieces in preparation for the second battle.

He was forced to take Candice along, to prevent her from being killed by Queen Diana. After news of Phantom's death had reached her, Candice had pretty much had a complete mental breakdown. She confined herself to her room and screamed and cried non-stop, repeatedly begging and pleading Phantom to come back. After three days of this someone finally slipped a note under her door reminding her that Phantom wasn't dead  _permanently_ or anything. With this revelation, Candice more or less went back to being her usual cheerfully insane self.

All of this was typical Candice behavior, and nothing to get excited about. Unfortunately, this had occurred while Candice was still acting as Princess Snow's tutor. The discovery of her allegiance to Phantom had come as an unpleasant shock, and suddenly cast suspicion on the Queen who had hired her. An investigation had lead to Diana's treachery being discovered and she had barely escaped being imprisoned by her enraged ex-followers. Needless to say, the Queen was not happy about this turn of events.

Normally Peta wouldn't have cared if she took out her wrath on Candice, but in this case he thought the whole thing was Diana's own fault to begin with. When she had first chosen  
Candice for princess brainwashing duty (on the grounds that a woman would have more maternal instinct- had she looked in the mirror recently?), Peta had gently tried to tell her that she was making a mistake, and she had arrogantly brushed him off.

Now, he was enjoying seeing her pay for her spectacularly bad judgment. Besides, Peta didn't think the whole thing was a complete loss. Candice had probably traumatized Snow more in the few weeks than Diana could have over the next couple years.

And so, Peta had taken Candice and quietly left. It said something about the general mood among the Chess Pieces that Peta actually preferred being alone with Candice to staying with them.

In the Chess Pieces' Castle only one person wasn't in mourning for Phantom. But despite that Alviss could rival any of the Chess Pieces with his unrelenting misery. The boy had lost his greatest hero, and he didn't even have his greatest enemy to hate anymore. Alviss no longer bothered to pull pranks on anyone. He had become a pale and silent shadow of his former self.

No one had much time to think about Alviss anymore either. In fact, the boy might have been able to just leave the Castle, if it weren't for Rolan (the one who stopped him). Rolan's final command from Phantom had been to take care of Alviss.

Actually, Phantom had casually told Rolan to "Look after the kid while I'm gone, okay?" right before he left to fight Danna. This was probably intended to be a brief babysitting job not a long term assignment, but these were the last words Phantom had spoken to Rolan, and he had taken them as a sacred duty.

And so Alviss remained. In truth, he seemed to have little heart left for escape attempts. He had no where left to go. He was a war orphan, and the Cross Guard which had been looking after him was disbanded. Now he was completely alone. Even a familiar enemy might be better than no one.

XXX

Chimera was convinced she was the most miserable person in the Chess Piece's Castle.

Sure, there were other people who were extremely gloomy, and a few who might be crazier. But when it came to sheer unrelenting depression, she couldn't be beat. Everyone else occasionally smiled, if only at the sight of other people suffering. This made them too cheerful for Chimera, so she avoided her teammates and mostly lurked in her room or on the training field.

The sound of a knock on her door was completely unexpected. She decided to ignore it. To her annoyance, someone took this as an invitation to push her door open.

The intruders appeared to be two of her fellow Chess Pieces, Kouga and Mr. Hook. She was pretty sure they were both above pawn rank, which meant she couldn't just kill them. A pity.

Oddly enough, the two were holding a young boy between them. They tightly gripped his arms as if they considered him potentially dangerous, but he appeared to be sullen and unresponsive.

"What's that? Dinner?" she snarled. Her voice came out deep and harsh, thanks to her mask. It still felt strange and awkward to have it covering her face, but she had to admit she like the way it made her voice sound; like the tougher, more dangerous person she was becoming.

The other two recoiled slightly at her words, but soon rallied themselves. "No, unfortunately we're not supposed to kill him," Mr. Hook said. "For some reason he appears to be considered important, so we have to keep him from escaping the castle."

"The newcomer always draws babysitting duty," Kouga added unconvincingly.

So, this was some form of hazing the newbie? "Don't count on him surviving long with me," she growled.

Neither of them looked particularly worried. In fact, Kouga looked rather pleased. Chimera did a hasty reassessment of the situation. It appeared they were hoping she would kill off the boy. There must be some reason they couldn't do it themselves, so they were hoping to shift the blame onto her. She wouldn't be fooled that easily.

"Take the brat and get out of my sight," she hissed giving her most menacing glare.

They exited very quickly, but left the boy behind. Oh, they'd pay for that when she caught up with them.

Should she chase the kid away? But what if he managed to escape, and then they blamed her? No, she'd have to watch him until someone came to get him.

But what was she supposed to do with him in the meantime?

The boy stared at her. She stared back at him.

Half an hour later they were still staring at each other. Chimera had never seen someone try to outstare a mask before. She was almost impressed.

She could feel her eyes begin to hurt, even though she had been blinking normally behind the mask. It must be psychological damage.

Finally, embarrassed at the prospect of losing a staring contest to a prepubescent brat, she said, "Just go over to the corner and sit there."

He didn't move. "I mean you, shrimp!" Still no reaction. Irritated, she grabbed him and dragged him across the room. He didn't try to resist. "And be quiet!" she added, unnecessarily since he hadn't spoken a word.

Perversely, this seemed to rouse him from his silence. "I'm not a shrimp, my name's Alviss! And I'll be whatever I want!" The defiance seemed to be a reflexive response.

The show of resistance pleased her- his previous attitude had been eerie. "No you won't! I may not be able to kill you but I bet being transformed into a toad might improve your attitude a bit."

"Better a toad than whatever you are!"

That struck a bit too close to home. "I'm the one holding your life in my hands!"

"It's not like my life has much value," he said bitterly. "I'd have killed myself if they weren't keeping me away from edged weapons."

Curious in spite of herself, Chimera asked, "What's wrong with you anyway?"

"Everyone I love is dead and I'm being held captive by the ones who killed them. Oh, and to make matters worse, I'm beginning to feel like my enemies are turning me into something I don't want to be. And I'm cursed to become a living corpse. The real question is, what's right with me?" He abruptly hunched over, looking like he regretted saying so much.

For Chimera, the words reminded her too much of her past self. Silenced, she merely turned back to her training exercises, leaving Alviss in peace.

XXX

Almost five hours had passed, and still no one had come to pick up Alviss. Chimera was beginning to consider lowering herself and actually leaving her room the find someone to take the brat off her hands. Not that he'd been any trouble after his brief outburst, but she still preferred to be alone. Besides, she needed to establish her status among the Chess Pieces as being above this. Otherwise she might get stuck with dirty jobs like looking after creepy brats all the time.

That thought was enough to decide Chimera. She was going to threaten the first person she saw into taking the kid off her hands. "Come on, we're leaving," she growled at Alviss.

For some reason, this time he decided to obediently follow her. Perhaps he was as sick of her company as she was of his.

Chimera determinedly marched through the mostly deserted halls. Spotting someone ahead of her, she stormed up and shouted, "You take the kid! I've had him long enough!"

"Excuse me, do you know who you're talking to?" the pink-haired woman asked coldly.

Chimera took a closer look. Crap. "You wouldn't happen to be the Queen, would you?" Peta had pointed Queen Diana out to her once, and identified the woman as one of the people she had to obey. Oops. "I'm extremely sorry, I thought you were someone else. I'll just go look for a peon to bully."

The Queen sneered, "You are a peon compared to me. And looking after a runt suits an ugly woman like you." With that, she swept off.

Chimera could feel her temper rising. She hadn't come to the Chess Pieces to be treated like this! And the "ugly" comment had really hit a sore spot.

To her surprise, Alviss was giving her a measuring look. "I don't like her either," he commented. "Do you want to get a little revenge?"

XXX

"This is a really bad idea," Chimera grumbled. "If we get caught, we'll probably be killed."

"If you were going to back out, you should have done it before making the potion. At this point I can just finish the job by myself," Alviss retorted.

Chimera growled. She couldn't stop now without looking less courageous than a mere child.

"Are you sure she's gone?" she asked nervously.

Alviss was already picking the lock on the Queen's door. "Relax, she always takes over an hour to eat lunch." The lock clicked open. "Now, come on!"

Shortly afterwards, the castle was split by a 100-decibel scream.

"And, Diana always takes a shower after lunch, because she can't go more than half a day without primping herself," Alviss said contentedly.

"How do you think she likes her new neon green hair?" Chimera asked wickedly.

"Not very much, but I think it suits her perfectly. And I couldn't have done it without you making the fake shampoo."

"On the contrary, it's all thanks to your brilliant ideas and lock-picking skills. You seem very good at this."

"I have a lot of practice. But this is the first time I've ever gotten Diana. Hopefully not the last time, either."

"I concur, but for now I think we'd better stay in my room."

"A wise warrior knows when to make himself scarce," Alviss agreed.

Chimera resumed her training, and Alviss continued to watch her. But this time, he tried to imitate some of her moves. Chimera was rather impressed by his skill, given his age.

When she noticed he had stopped moving, she paused to check on him. Alviss had fallen asleep on the floor. Well, he was still just a kid. Asleep, he looked just like any other child. The sight roused a vaguely maternal feeling that Chimera had thought beaten out of her a long time ago. He was just so cute.

And if she covered him with a blanket, no one ever had to know.

XXX

Chimera was beginning to doze off herself when her door was thrust open and two strangers came hurling in.

She was combat ready in seconds, but the two ignored her and went straight to Alviss.

"We've finally found you!" Rolan cried. "I should have tortured Kouga about your whereabouts sooner!"

"Are you alright, Alviss?" Ash asked anxiously. "Don't worry, I'm much stronger than those two, and I'll make sure they never bother you again."

"I'm fine," Alviss insisted sleepily. "I think they thought Chimera would do something to me, but she's really not so bad."

"We're so grateful to you for looking after him," Ash told Chimera sincerely.

"It's not a problem. Just get him out of my sight before I kill him," she growled.

As usual, Rolan tuned out anything he didn't want to hear. "I'm so glad you and Alviss have become such good friends! And he looks much more cheerful. You seem to have a positive influence on him. You'll have to come play with him some more tomorrow."

"Didn't you hear me? I never want to see him again!" Chimera suspected that Alviss had a knack for getting under her skin. She couldn't afford to get close to him, for the sake of her new persona.

"I don't think you have any choice." Grinning evilly, Alviss walked over to Chimera and whispered in her ear, "I know what you helped me do to Diana. If I expose, you what do you think will happen? From now on, you're my minion!"

That evil brat! How could she have ever thought he was cute?

Chimera scowled at Alviss as he slipped out the door with Ash, but she knew she was cornered.

She was surprised to notice Rolan giving her a knowing look. "He was blackmailing you, wasn't he? You're not the first one. Alviss is such a precocious child, and Phantom taught him well. I'm sure you'll quickly become good friends."

Chimera gaped at him. "You're completely insane, you know that?"

"So they tell me!" Rolan said, smiling brightly.

XXX

Peta normally went through life with a mildly foul mood. He hid it with his psychotic smiles, but the truth was he generally found his existence to be rather tedious. Only occasionally were there exceptions. Sometimes, after an especially difficult victory, he briefly felt rejuvenated and alive. And sometimes, after something particularly irritating had happened, his ennui was consumed by raw fury.

At the moment, his mood was definitely leaning towards furious, thanks to his pain-in-the-ass of a traveling companion.

First, Candice had ruined his attempt to implant ambition in the heart of the Luberian Thieves' Leader. Peta had been at the top of his game, being eerily menacing and sinisterly persuasive, speaking of the innermost secrets of Galian's heart. But while he was trailing the thief, Candice had run up to him screaming something unimportant. As a result, Peta's spying had been discovered by Galian and Galian's stealing had been discovered by the townspeople, leading to both of them being run out of town.

Galian was no longer very impressed with Peta; in fact, he was downright angry. There went a perfect recruit.

Alas, this was only the first time that Candice ruined Peta's talent scouting missions. Potential fighters became much less impressed with the Chess Pieces after they discovered that at least one of the knights was a hyperactive childish lunatic.

And to top it off, Candice had randomly decided to kidnap a little boy. She had claimed that she thought the child, the son of the Cross-Guard's plant user, could be useful someday. Actually, Peta suspected that she just missed Alviss. He couldn't understand why; normally she acted like the one most victimized by the brat. Alviss seemed to have grown on her. Maybe it was because of her masochistic streak.

However, the boy Jack had been nothing like Alviss; he had mostly screamed and cried. Not that Peta didn't consider that an improvement compared to Alviss' violent attacks. Though in a surprisingly short time Jack had toughed up considerably.

Candice had even wanted to take the boy back with them! She claimed that he would make a good friend for Alviss. Peta had vehemently opposed the idea. Alviss needed no help whatsoever in being a nuisance. In the end, the point became irrelevant when Jack ran off during the night.

Candice had sulked non-stop after Peta had refused to let her go find him. She had tried to kidnap another little boy to bring back to play with Alviss, but luckily Peta had managed to stop her this time. In a fit of pettiness, she had bagged the most annoying fairy in existence as a present for Alviss instead. Listening to that thing's shrill voice the entire trip was giving Peta migraines. He even thought the experience might be taking a toll on his perfect complexion. 

Fed up, Peta decided to dump Candice back at the Castle. If Diana hadn't forgotten her grudge yet that was just too bad. Any more time in her company and he would probably end up killing her himself.

No sooner had he crossed the castle's threshold then his ear drums were split by an enormous explosion. Cries of "Grab the brat!" and "Someone take those bombs away from him!" shortly followed.

Candice's eyes lit up with excitement. "It's Alviss! He's back to his old tricks!" she shouted. With that, she happily took off in hot pursuit, crying, "I'll get him!"

Peta followed at a more sedate pace. To his surprise, he could feel something like a smile tugging at his lips. A real smile, at that. He'd sort of missed the good old bomb-dodging days, though he wasn't sure why. It wasn't as if he'd been worried about the demon child or anything. After pondering the matter, he concluded that the part of him that craved danger must have missed a worthy opponent. Yep, that was totally it.

It was good to be home.


	6. The Game's Afoot

Phantom's revival hit all of MAR-Heaven like a storm.

Although the Chess Pieces weren't really the type to have a balloon-and-funny-hat celebration party, nevertheless their mood significantly improved. An air of anticipation filled the Castle. Soon all of Mar-Heaven would belong to the Chess!

…On another note, Rolan actually did decide to throw a party in honor of Phantom's return, complete with balloons, streamers, and a cake with "Happy Un-Death Day" written on it. Phantom participated cheerfully, Peta participated reluctantly, and Alviss participated because he'd been tied to a chair. All the other Chess Pieces hid in their rooms and hoped Rolan wouldn't come by and make them wear a funny hat.

XXX

In the strategy room, Peta was giving Phantom a status report when Rolan popped his head in.

"I haven't seen Alviss' fairy around recently," Rolan said. "It's a little worrying."

Alviss had been something approaching happy when Candice had given him his own fairy. The pranking possibilities with ariel involvement were endless. Everyone including Candice had come to rue the day, particularly given how annoying the tiny creature had been. The fairy's recent disappearance had been widely noticed, but no one had cared.

"It could have been eaten by a cat," Peta said hopefully.

"I think Alviss sent it away to do something," Rolan insisted. "He's always lurking in his room now, and sometimes he disappears for long periods of time. What if he's involved in something…dangerous?"

"He'll be fine. He's gotten quite strong," Phantom said dismissively.

"I know, it's just, with the next War Game coming, you don't think he could have possibly…joined the other side? No, it couldn't be. Maybe I'm over-thinking things too much."

"Gee, I wonder," Peta said sarcastically. "He only goes on about how he wants to destroy us every five minutes."

"He told me yesterday that he was going to look for powerful warriors to defeat the Chess Pieces," Phantom said cheerfully. "So, I gave him an ARM I stole from the Cross Guard called the 'Gatekeeper Clown' which I think will help him considerably."

"Why did you do that?" Peta asked disgustedly.

"Because anyone he summons is just as likely to join us as him! It's a bit of a gamble. I like to keep things interesting."

"You should just leave things as they are! Right now we're already the ones with the greatest chance of winning. There's no need to take risks."

Rolan's eyes began to fill with tears. "But why is Alviss turning against us like this? Didn't we give him enough love and affection?"

"Switch 'not enough' with 'too much' and I think you have the problem," Peta grumbled.

"Rolan, you have to look at things in perspective," Phantom said. "Alviss is a very loyal and devoted person; he just doesn't happen to be loyal and devoted to us. But basically, once all of his old friends are thoroughly annihilated, he won't feel obligated to be our enemy any more, and everything will work out."

"So, we just have to crush everyone in the next War Game, right?" Rolan said enthusiastically.

"Exactly!" Phantom beamed at him.

"This is too troublesome," Peta complained. "Seeing as how we knew from the beginning that the brat was going to run off the enemy, why didn't we just lock him up in the Castle or something?" Alviss was now sixteen, but he would always be "the brat" to Peta.

"But things are much more fun this way!" Phantom insisted. "I want to fight lots of strong opponents!"

Surprisingly, Rolan said, "I agree with Peta. This is too dangerous."

Phantom sighed. "Rolan, Rolan, Rolan. You don't understand. I consider all of us Chess Pieces to be a big happy extended family. I'm like the father, and you and Alviss are like my two sons. Peta, I guess that makes you the mother."

"Wait, what?" Peta said.

Phantom continued, "And everyone knows that a family has to have a rebellious member. It's often the youngest child. It adds drama and spice to the story! But in the end, everyone reconciles and they all live happily ever after. Or everyone dies, if it's that kind of story."

"You're making death look increasingly attractive," Peta muttered.

Rolan, however, seemed to be buying every word. "Phantom, you think of me as family? I'm so happy! Is Candice part of the family too?"

"Candice is like the family pet."

"Fair enough."

"All of you are missing the point," Peta growled. "The point is that you let a self-declared enemy run off with a valuable ARM because you think it will make life more interesting!"

"But Peta, family has to come first," Rolan said patronizingly.

"Shut up."

"Phantom, now Peta's rebelling!"

"Rolan, do what your mother tells you to do."

XXX

Meanwhile, at the inn where Team Mar had assembled:

"Another round of drinks please, my dear," Nanashi called to the waitress.

Alan glared at him. "You've already beggared the treasury paying for the ridiculously large fee you charged for joining Team MAR, so from now on all of your food expenses are on you, got it?"

"Don't be so stingy," Nanashi said dismissively. "I heard you have piles of money from pawning all of the former Queen's jewelry after her treachery was uncovered. You should count yourselves lucky I agreed to help you at all. I'm only here because Galian insisted the Luberian Thieves send a representative. He seems to have a massive grudge against the Chess Pieces for some reason."

"So we didn't have to pay you at all, did we? Give back the money!" Alan demanded.

"Don't be so stingy!"

"So, if Nanashi is getting paid, can I get paid too?" Dorothy asked.

Alan thought about it. "Make him give you some of his money."

"Okay!" Dorothy said brightly. Nanashi began to edge away from her.

"Is that dog that turned into a tree going to be alright?" Ginta asked worriedly.

"Oh, Ed? Yeah, he'll be fine. He's under a curse where every time he sleeps three times, he turns into a tree. But he changes back after a week or so. It's a lingering effect from the last War Game."

"That dog fought in the last War Game?" Babbo asked skeptically.

"No, he's just as weak as he appears. Actually, he was hit by a misdirected curse aimed at me. Halloween almost had me there. But for some reason he stepped on a rock and then started screaming about how the rocks were out to get him. While he was flailing his arms around, he completely missed me. Someone told me he has rock-related trauma or something."

"Well, that's just strange," Ginta commented. "Babbo, we should try to get a Holy ARM next so we can cure Ed."

"No need to make that a priority," Alan said. "It's not like the dog is much use even when he isn't a tree. You should concentrate your energy on weapons to use against the Chess."

"Eh, the Chess Pieces are all just a bunch of dysfunctional morons. We can beat those losers easily," Jack said. He was dressed entirely in black and sitting with his chair tilted back and his feet on the table. He kept his long black hair swept in a dashing ponytail.

"You sound awfully confident," Dorothy commented.

"I've had some past encounters with them. They actually kidnapped me once. It wasn't as bad as it sounds; I learned a lot. Mostly, I learned not to be afraid of them. If I could pull one over on them when I was ten I have every confidence in my chances now."

Ginta had first met Jack when some werewolves were attacking the boy's farm. Ginta had dragged Jack off his opponents' battered bodies to prevent him from killing them. Despite that, they'd become fast friends, and Jack had offered to guide him around Mar-Heaven. Even though he dressed like a Goth and acted like a punk, Ginta knew that Jack had a good heart. Somewhere very deep down.

"Don't underestimate the Chess Pieces!" said a high pitched voice.

Everyone turned to look at the small person hovering over the last seat. It was wrapped in a long cape and wearing a mask. No one was sure why; no disguise was going to make a tiny fairy any less obviously recognizable.

"So, what's your advice?" Alan asked, trying not to be sarcastic.

"Well…I don't know. But when Alviss- I mean Mysterious Member X- arrives he'll have lots of good ideas!"

"Look, you can stop with the 'Member X' stuff," Dorothy said. "You've already slipped up five times now, we all now it's some guy called 'Alviss' that you're talking about."

"He's the one who brought me into MAR-Heaven, right? I really want to meet him!" Ginta said eagerly.

"Plus, no matter what costume you put on you will not look intimidating," Dorothy finished. "You're the size of a bug. Just get over it."

"Shut up! I don't see you as much of a match for that sister of yours! Yes, I know about your family secret! And I bet Ginta couldn't even touch Phantom!"

"Phantom!" Snow screamed, and began trembling. Alan quickly dumped a glass of water over her head.

"What did you do that for!" Ginta demanded angrily.

"It's okay," Snow said quickly, forcing herself to stop shaking. "When I get like that, it's the only thing that stops me from throwing a fit. I'm sorry."

"What just happened?"

"I have a massive emotional trauma every time I hear the P word. It's because of a nanny I had as a little girl, who was obsessed with him. She talked about him non-stop for days at a time! She didn't even pause to sleep! Now I can't even hear his name without going into convulsions."

Ginta put his arm around her comfortingly.

Alan declared, "We'll all need to become stronger before facing Pha- err, He Who Shall Not Be Named. That's why I intend to put you all through intensive training!"

"I'm up for it!" Ginta said determinedly.

MAR-Heaven was a lot of fun, but for all that Ginta sometimes had a strange feeling that something was a little…wrong. It was probably just his imagination.

XXX

Gido tried to restrain her panic as she was dragged down the dark corridor by Chimera. She had known that she was doomed when she had volunteered to take Ian's punishment for him. But she still wished her fate had been given over to anyone other than the ferocious Chimera. She wasn't even sure that there was a human behind that serrated mask.

The faceless creature's fingers dug into her arm as she was forcibly propelled into a small room.

Inside, a number of small children were laughing and playing. Gido blinked, but the hallucination didn't go away.

Chimera growled, "Now it's your turn to babysit them!" She stalked off muttering, "I keep telling Ash that I don't actually like children, but does he listen to me? No!"

Gido was relieved, she really was. But she couldn't escape the feeling that something was very wrong with this situation…


	7. Destiny is Overrated

Using binoculars, Rolan peered down at the prospective War Game players. "Who do you think looks the strongest?" He asked anxiously.

"Don't worry about it," Peta said dismissively. "None of them are worth much compared to us. The preliminary round will quickly sort out the weaklings, then we'll mop up the rest."

"I think the short spiky haired boy will be the toughest one," Phantom mused.

"Really? He's just a kid," Rolan said hesitantly.

"A kid?" Peta shuddered visibly. "Please Phantom, I beg you, if you can find a small shred of mercy in your soul for your most devoted servant, don't bring him back home with you!"

"I only meant that he'll make a good opponent. Especially once he's a little more trained."

"Let's finish him off before then," Peta growled.

Phantom laughed. "What would be the fun in that?"

Below, the mysterious final member of the MAR team, the one who had been communicating with them from the shadows revealed himself to be- Alviss!

"Gee, I never would have guessed," Peta said sarcastically.

"Things will certainly get interesting," Phantom declared.

Rolan gasped with shock. "Alviss? How could he join Team MAR? I can't believe it!"

Peta stared at Rolan. "You know, sometimes I really wonder about you."

XXX

To summarize the War Games:

Ginta was made team captain because of his strength and courage. He and Babbo fought a number of difficult battles together and overcame all obstacles.

Snow fought to the best of her ability until the enemy accidently discovered that she had a panic attack every time someone mentioned Phantom's name. After that, she was forced to withdraw since she could no longer win any battles. She put herself through intensive training to overcome her weakness. By the time she had overcome her phobia the tournament was over, but everyone agreed it was a valuable moral victory.

Jack smashed his way through his opponents with a sheer brutality that won him many fangirls- even among the Chess Pieces. He was almost seduced over to the other side by a particularly lovely one named Pano. Ginta managed to stop him with a speech about friendship, and Pano was charmed over to their side instead. But after learning the identity of his father's killer, Jack dropped off the team to pursue his vengeance.

In addition to losing two members, things weren't very well with the others. After the first time Nanashi "lost" to a cute girl, Alan threatened to give a portion of his pay to Dorothy every time he lost a fight. The conflict between his two greatest loves, women and money, put poor Nanashi under deep emotional strain.

Meanwhile, Dorothy saw a prime opportunity to capitalize on the situation and began trying to rig Nanashi's fights against him. After he found out, he retaliated by sabotaging her. Eventually this deteriorated to the point where the two MAR members began dueling each other in the middle of what was supposed to be a fight with the Chess.

In disgust, Alan refused to pay either of them anything. Actually, once the money was out to the picture they managed to make up and become friends. The whole situation was really Alan's fault to begin with, not that he would ever admit it.

Alan showed himself to be a tad lacking in professionalism as well when in the middle of his match to Chaton he abruptly proposed marriage to her. Apparently he had a soft-spot for cat-girls. She agreed under the condition that he forfeit. Alan didn't even have the grace to be embarrassed afterwards, and was disgustingly happy for the rest of the tournament.

Fortunately, all of his teammates' blunders were made up for by Alviss' winning streak. In fact, every single one of his opponents forfeited before even facing him.

This was partly because many of the Chess Pieces had tried to fight Alviss before and now wanted nothing to do with him. Of course, not all of the Chess were so cowardly. Some were itching for a rematch against their constant tormentor.

But their enthusiasm had been dampened when Rolan had privately spoken to every single Chess Piece and threatened to do horrible things to them with a rusty spoon if they harmed a single hair on Alviss' head.

Rapunzel, being her psychotically insane self, had openly declared her intention of decorating the castle with Alviss' entrails. But before Rolan had even heard about this, several other people (namely Ash, Candice, and to the amazement of everyone Chimera too) had expressed some objections. After that it was impossible for Rapunzel to fight in the War Games, even if she ever recovered her ability to walk. There were no further objectioners, and Alviss continued to win all his battles by default. 

The MAR-Team decided to take advantage of this by having Alviss fight as many battles as possible, against all the strongest opponents. This was of great satisfaction to everyone but Alviss himself, who was boiling with fury. (He knew who was responsible for his winning streak and found being treated like a baby by Rolan to be very humiliating.)

He finally got a chance to take his revenge when he faced Rolan in the Games. Unfortunately, the Chess Knight managed to defeat him by unfairly distracting him and causing public humilation with embarrassing anecdotes from his childhood.

Alviss eventually got a rematch in the finals, and this time turned the table on Rolan by taking advantage of the other's affection for cute and fuzzy things.

Both sides agreed that this match was an embarrassment that they wanted to forget as quickly as possible. In fact, the finals overall were an extreme disappointment.

First, one of the Phantom's chosen line-up was found dead in his bed before the round even started.

Jack had found his father's killer among the Chess Pieces. (Big surprise. He really should have looked there in the first place, instead of hanging around bars with Pano.) Unwilling to wait even a few hours, he had challenged the plant-using knight on the spot and ripped him to pieces.

After completing his personal vendetta, Jack returned to Team MAR just in time to witness Alviss' victory in the first final match. Unfortunately, now that Jack was back an argument arose over which of the five MAR members would fight the remaining four Chess Pieces.

It was eventually decided that Jack would have to sit out the finals since he was the one who had run off. This did not sit well with the bloodthirsty teenager.

When Dorothy faced off against Chimera, Jack took action. He leaped into the ring and thrust himself into the battle. (He claimed that he was trying to save Dorothy from certain death, but since the witch had just gotten the upper hand this was obviously a lie.)

Infuriated both at the interference and at the slight of her skills, Dorothy turned her ARMs on Jack. Ginta was forced to intervene and pull them apart. Meanwhile, Chimera left in disgust.

The fight was declared a win for the Chess Pieces by default (since it was MAR team members who had interfered.) Fortunately for MAR Heaven, there were still three matches left.

Nanashi was victorious over Peta. This was much to his relief, since between his weakness for the female opponents and Dorothy's interference his win-loss record was dismal. If he didn't at least win in the finals, he'd never live it down. At least now he could say with pride that he had defeated the third-strongest Chess Knight.

While Nanashi was gloating, an injured Peta crawled away. Nanashi let him go- it wasn't like he had a personal grudge against the guy or anything.

Since Nanashi's fight had actually resembled something like what the War Games should look like, the crowd's spirit was revived. They quickly lost their enthusiasm after the next battle. Having discovered Halloween's weakness, Alan ruthlessly pelted him with rocks. The Chess Knight ran away crying. He was so pathetic that most of the audience felt sorry for him.

But the final match at least promised to be exciting. In the moment the entire War Games had been leading up to, the team leaders Ginta and Phantom faced off.

This match, at least, lived up to everyone's expectations. There was drama and danger and many close calls for both fighters. But in the end, Ginta emerged victorious.

But it turned out that the battle didn't stop with Phantom. Going beyond all expectations, Ginta even successfully defeated the true source of the evil, the Orb, and won back his father.

In the midst of all this excitement, Phantom vanished.

XXX

In Phantom's throne room, Peta angrily paced back and forth. How could this have happened a second time?

"In retrospect, maybe we shouldn't have tried the stupid War Games again," he muttered. "One-on-one matches really favored our opponents. We could have beaten them with numbers if we all attacked at once. Next time we should just go for an all-out melee."

"I'm not sure there will be a next time," Phantom said sadly. "I'm getting rather tired."

"Don't talk like that, Phantom," Candice said anxiously. "You're still number one to me!"

Rolan spoke more quietly, but with equal passion. "You can't give up, Phantom. I don't think I could go on without you."

The heartwarming moment was interrupted when Alviss stormed into the room. "Phantom, your reign of terror is over! I'm going to put an end to you for once and for all!"

"Alviss, this really isn't the time," Peta said wearily. "Why don't you go play with your friends?"

"My friends are finishing off the rest of the Chess Pieces right now!"

"Yes, and you should go help them, okay?"

Surprised, Alviss asked, "Don't you care if the Queen and whoever your shadowy mastermind is get defeated?"

Peta shrugged. "Not particularly, no. I'm only loyal to Phantom."

"I never liked Diana anyway. Her hair is pink," Candice added randomly.

"Those people had the nerve to throw Phantom away just because of one measly little defeat! Let's clobber them together, Alviss!" Rolan declared.

Trying to regain his balance, Alviss said, "Stop trying to distract me! I'm here to put an end to Phantom with this!" He pulled out the Purific Ave.

"Maybe it really is my time to die," Phantom sighed. Everyone completely ignored him.

"What's that funny looking key thing?" Candice asked.

Completely oblivious, Peta began to scratch out potential battle plans for the future conquest of MAR Heaven on the floor.

"Alviss, I think your joke is going too far. Phantom is very depressed right now," Rolan said sternly.

"What are you planning to do with that wimpy little ARM? Poke him?" Candice snickered.

Frustrated, Alviss screamed, "Get this through your head! I'm about to kill Phantom! As in murder, exhume, assassinate, execute, dispatch, exterminate, snuff out, extirpate, slay, and do away with him!"

Rolan frowned. "I don't recall teaching you to speak to adults like that, Alviss. Go to your room!"

Alviss threw up his hands in the air. "What do I have to do to get taken seriously around here? I'm tired of being treated like a kid!"

"Now is not the time to make a play for attention, Alviss," Rolan said.

"That's not what this is about! Read my lips: I'm your enemy, and I'm out to kill your leader!"

"If you insist on being immature about this, I'm going to have to respond accordingly. Do you want to be grounded?"

"That's telling him, Rolan," Candice said cheerfully.

Furious, Alviss started towards Phantom, Purific Ave in hand. On the way, he accidentally stepped on one of the drawings on the floor. Annoyed, Peta reached out and tripped him.

Alviss tumbled to the floor, losing his grip on the key-shaped ARM. Rolan snatched it out of the air, then tossed it into the fireplace.

Alviss watched in despair as the Purific Ave, key to Phantom's destruction and the antidote to the Zombie Tattoo, melted into a pile of metallic mush.

"I hate you all!" He shouted, and fled the room.

"Don't forget to come back home in time for dinner!" Rolan called after him.

Seated on his throne, Phantom was grinning from ear to ear. On second thought, how could he even think about dying when the world was still so entertaining?


	8. Epilogue

The night was cold and silent. Clouds blocked out the moon. On seaside cliff in the middle of nowhere, two men faced off, gazes locked together. Neither willing to be the first to blink, their eyes' fought for dominance.

Rolan was the first to break the silence. "Just admit it. You're glad Phantom didn't die."

Alviss inadvertently blinked. Annoyed at himself for losing, he snapped, "I most certainly am not. My goal is to defeat the Zombie Curse no matter what." He glanced down at his arms. "It looks like I only have a year left, maybe a year and a half."

Alviss' Zombie Tattoo was only a little behind Rolan and Peta. *

"Are your still worried about that? I told you, you should embrace your gift!"

"Rolan, living corpse' and 'gift' are not phrases that belong together," Alviss said firmly.

His companion sighed. "Maybe once I become a zombie I'll be able to convince you that it's not so bad."

"No! I'll put an end to Phantom before I let that happen to you. It's only a matter of time before I find another way to kill him"

"Sure, because Phantom probably had two long lost girlfriends who carted around indescribably powerful ARMs," Rolan said patronizingly. "You know, I have my doubts about that even happening once. I bet your so-called friends conned you."

"Since when did you get so cynical?" Alviss asked.

Rolan laughed. "I probably got it from you."

The tension now broken, Alviss ventured to ask, "How is everyone back at the Castle?"

"Well, Phantom decided that trying to conquer MAR-Heaven yet again would be passé, so he's planning to take over Earth instead. He got it into his head that if he went to Earth he'd be able to fight lots of strong people like Ginta. Peta says that Earth people only become powerful when they cross over to our world, but Phantom wasn't discouraged. He says a strong will is the most important aspect of power anyway. Now he's researching ways to travel between worlds. The Gatekeeper Clown isn't any good since he wants to bring an army with him. Not that Phantom alone wouldn't be enough to subdue Earth. Phantom is amazing! He's just bringing followers along to do minor jobs like setting up another castle on Earth. He-"

"Enough about Phantom already!" Alviss snapped. "Tell me about someone else. How is Chimera doing?"

Although a little perturbed, Rolan answered the question. "Chimera went off on a quest to cure her old injuries. She found a map that supposedly leads to a spring with healing waters. It seems pretty implausible, but she said she just wanted an excuse to do something new. I don't see how she can just leave Phantom like that."

Seeing the direction the conversation was boomeraning back to, Alviss quickly said, "Never mind, tell me about someone else."

Rolan thought for a moment. "Well, most of our members have wandered off- those who survived, anyway. It's really just me, Candice, and Peta in the Castle now, with a few pawns/servants lurking around. We really need to recruit some new people. Chaton and Pano actually ran off with two of your team members."

"Yeah, I'm out here trying to avoid the wedding planning. Snow wanted them to have a double wedding, but there was too much conflict over Jack's insistence on an all-black color scheme. Alan said that even if weddings were for women he still wasn't going to get married while dressed like a goth. Then Jack and Pano tried to elope, but Snow dragged them back. She seems rather fixated on weddings at the moment. I think she's still upset over Ginta leaving."

"Speaking of Snow, she's currently considering an offer to join the Chess Pieces."

"WHAT? There's no way she'd do that!"

"Well, she does want to see Ginta again, and since we're planning on going to Earth we're her best shot."

"That's ridiculous. Besides, since she apparently has a double on Earth, what would happen if she went there and found two of herself, both in love with Ginta?

"A catfight?"

"I can't believe you just said that."

"Well, that's what Peta said. I'm not sure what he means." Rolan looked innocent, while Alviss tried to gauge if he was serious or not.

"So, is this why Peta wants to recruit Snow?"

"No, we just want access to the royal treasury."

"Well, good luck with that."

"Thanks!" Rolan said, taking Alviss words as if he'd been sincere.

Instead of correcting him, Alviss asked, "How about Ash?"

"He's quite busy running his own chain of orphanages. Actually, we Chess Pieces helped him set them up a while back."

"You guys, involved in charity work? I don't believe it."

"It wasn't voluntary. Peta agreed to donate a quarter of all the Chess Pieces' money and labor to the purpose of helping children in exchange for Ash joining the Chess Pieces. Ridiculous terms, especially compared to what everyone else got, but Peta says Ash had him over the barrel when they were negotiating. That was because of you, Alviss."

"Me? I don't know what you're talking about."

Rolan continued, "I think Loco moved in with Chaton. She finds it difficult to take care of herself when she's in child form, so it's for the best. Oh, and Ian and Gido also decided to get married. Although I think Ian was a little shell-shocked when he discovered that Gido had decided to adopt the pack of orphans she was taking care of."

"I think that covers everyone I care about enough to remember," Alviss said.

"So, what are your team members doing?" Rolan asked.

"I thought Snow was busy planning weddings, but now it appears she's plotting treason. Alan and Jack are busy getting married."

"How'd Pano convince Jack to settle down? Every time I saw him he was surrounded by a parcel of girls."

"She threatened to 'render him incapable of ever cheating on her again' next time she caught him with another woman. Actually, I think the threat kind of impressed him. He seems to respect her more now."

"Can they really get married? Aren't they too young?"

"Actually, there's no age minimum for getting married in MAR Heaven. Snow checked. But I think that at the moment the marriage is really more a way for Pano to assert her claim, as opposed to a 'real' marriage. Either way it's not something I really want to think about."

"Fair enough. How about the others? Where's Babbo?"

"Do you think I'm telling you that, you force of evil?"

"It was worth a try."

"Actually, I'm not sure where he is. Nanashi seems to have vanished too."

"Didn't you know? Nanashi agreed to join the Chess Pieces. It turns out that he wants to visit Earth too."

Alviss was dumbstruck. Rolan took pity on him and added, "But in the end he just stole a bunch of our money and left during the night. I think he has a very short attention span."

Rolan expected Alviss to be relieved, but the other boy's scowl only deepened. "Come to think of it, I haven't seen my Gatekeeper Clown recently," Alviss growled.

Trying to change the subject, Rolan asked, "What's Dorothy doing?"

"Oh, she and her sister are on the run from Kaldea."

"I thought Dorothy wanted to kill her sister?"

"Well, I don't know if she really 'wanted' to, she was just required by her hometown's laws. She was planning to go ahead and do it, but when they confronted each other Diana broke down and started crying about how all the other Chess Pieces were playing cruel tricks on her and she hated her life. Dorothy decided she was just too pitiful to kill."

"That's sisterly love for you, I guess."

"Now Dorothy is plotting to take over Kaldea and force them to change their stupid law. I hope she succeeds. Forcing family members to kill each other is cruel and pointless."

"I agree. If it weren't for that rule, Phantom's life might be very different."

"What do you mean?"

"Didn't you know?" Rolan asked, surprised. "When Phantom was young, he accidentally fell under the influence of the Orb. His parents were supposed to kill him, but killed themselves instead. Phantom was very sad. What an awful bunch of people, neh?"

"Wait a second," Alviss said slowly. "You mean Phantom didn't come up with his delusions of world domination entirely on his own?"

"No, the Orb influenced his thoughts. Not that all Phantom's ideas aren't great, Orb or not!"

Ignoring Rolan, Alviss declared, "That means Phantom doesn't have to be evil! I just have to find something that cancels out that the Orb's influence, and he'll become a normal productive member of society! This is great!" Filled with inspiration, Alviss jumped up and went tearing off.

Rolan, on the other hand, could see some flaws in Alviss' reasoning. Wouldn't the Orb have already lost any hold over Phantom when it was destroyed? Or did the effects of that kind of thing linger? He wasn't really sure. But either way, he doubted that Phantom would ever become a "normal" person, Orb or not.

Rolan decided there was no point in disillusioning his friend. At least Alviss had the most precious gift in the world, hope. Which would keep him out of trouble for a little while.

Come to think of it, Alviss had been even more enthusiastic about freeing Phantom from the clutches of evil than he had about killing him. Didn't that mean that despite everything he said he actually cared about Phantom, at least a little?

Rolan smirked. And to think people said  _he_  was in denial.

**The End**

**XXX**

*In this story, Alviss' tattoo hasn't spread as far because of his close proximity to Phantom. In the actual MAR manga/anime there is no evidence that the Zombie Tattoo would progress more slowly for someone who was near Phantom, nor is there any reason that this would be the case. But frankly, it's the only logical explanation I can come up with for why in the real storyline Alviss' tattoo was much closer to completion that either Peta or Rolan. Phantom met both of them first, and given how impulsive he was in marking Alviss I don't know why he would hold off with his own allies. So I fabricated a reason for their tattoos to progress more slowly. I'm almost certainly wrong, but it's convenient for me to use this explanation for the purposes of this story.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thus it ends. Isn't it amazing the chain reaction that can come from one little change? Phantom makes one slightly different decision in the first chapter, and no aspect of MAR Heaven is unaffected...  
> Thank you to everyone who took the time to read this story, especially people who left feedback! And if you actually read Author's Notes as well, then extra bonus points to you!


End file.
